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Today's Opinions

When he campaigned, President Donald Trump said he would make funds available for infrastructure. That would be good news for Vandalia, which needs to deal with a river intake that doesn't work and an aging water plant needing either significant work or replacement.
That's not to mention our need for water and sewer line replacements, something that's obvious because of line breaks on a regular basis.

1967 – Harold Hartwick, president of First National Bank of Vandalia, was elected president of Group Nine of the Illinois Bankers Association.
Nearly 1.5 inches of rain fell on Sunday, and then on Wednesday, it snowed.

As expected, the Fayette County Board last week approved a deficit budget for the fiscal year that began in December. We knew that was coming, based on comments from members of the board's finance committee in recent months.
Declining revenues and increasing expenses are to blame, and the state's failure to make scheduled payments on tax revenues and reimbursements don't help the cause.
Board Chairman Jeff Beckman and other board members said that they will be working with department heads on ways to cut expenses this fiscal year.

Jane Johns moved with her husband Dr. H.C. Johns and children to the hamlet of Decatur in 1849, although she absolutely did not want to leave Circleville, Ohio.
In her book, “Personal Recollections, 1849-1865,” she wrote, “Illinois is heaven for men and horses, but hell for women and oxen,” and this phrase may have prompted her husband to promise to Jane that within five years of living in Illinois, they would attain great wealth from fattening cattle off the land at no cost.